Memorial Day weekend

 Wow I'm behind! Busy weekend; we were camping Friday-Monday.

5/27: Friday morning before we left I ran 13.1 (6 miles with a friend, 2.5 with Juliet, and the rest solo). The first 10.5 were at 9:54/mile; the miles with Juliet were much slower (around 12/mile) as I'm trying to get her back into running. Felt pretty rough the first couple miles by myself as I have really been struggling with insomnia and anxiety. 

5/28: Saturday I ran 5.4 miles around the state park where we were camping (very hilly! 9:40/mile) and then hiked 6 miles with all six of our kids + 4 of their friends. Our tent was on a pretty bad slope so I was sore all weekend from sleeping with tensed muscles trying not to roll downhill onto the kids next to me. 

5/29: Sunday I was really feeling it in my hip flexors from the two preceding days' runs so I was glad to have a rest day! I walked 45 minutes early in the morning and then took another 20-minute walk with Neil while we waited for the Dutch ovens to do their thing.

5/30: This morning (Memorial Day) I ran 6.3 miles around the state park again and it was soooo hot and my calves were dying. Just so sore and cramped (it was a really rough night...we went to bed at midnight and then Isaac woke up at 12:30 throwing up, so we didn't sleep much). I had to stop after the first mile to stretch my calves because I was in so much pain. Thankfully they felt a lot better afterwards and I just kept a slower pace with the heat (10:19/mile) and then did 30 min of strength when we got home this afternoon. 

I ran more than I should have this week (my plan had me at 12 miles and I ran 31 plus 4 strength sessions and the bike/yoga), but I was really having a rough one emotionally/mentally and the running helped for sure. It was also nice to run while camping as that was a first! 

5/26

 First day of summer break for the kids! 

Active recovery day: 45 min walk, 20 min upper body, 30 min yoga (20 min focus flow for hips, 10 min for quads)

5/25

 Rough night of sleeping after the Robb Elementary shootings and worrying about sending my kids to their last day of school. 

15 min run to warm up, then 30 min at tempo, two minutes running to finish out the 5 miles, and a quarter-mile walk to cool down. Still really struggling with my heart rate going too high post-Covid (and my allergies were AWFUL yesterday). HR hit 175 near the end and I had to reel it in. Splits are above—mile 2 was split between tempo and warmup and mile 5 was split between tempo and cooldown, so miles 1, 3, and 4 are the most accurate. 

Crazy day racing around but I managed to wedge in 30 min strength for runners and 10 min restorative yoga. 

5/24

 Cross-training today. 22 miles on the Peloton (PowerZone endurance) with an average HR of 122 (chest strap). 20 min upper body and 5 min stretch to follow. 

Here we go again!

 Okay, I'm going to try this thing again because I'm starting marathon training again today and it's harder for me to write this down in the paper logs. 

Quick overview--I'm going to try less running and more cross-training and strength, so only 3 (maybe 4) days a week of running in hopes to avoid injury. The plan I'm looking at is Hal Higdon's 24-week 3 days of running plan, so it starts today for my November race. 

I just ran a half a couple weeks ago; I was training on endurance but not on pace. Had some major stomach issues the day of the race and finished in 1:58:14 which I felt good about considering the day and the way my training had gone (I had 3 weeks of travel in the 6 weeks leading up to the race).

Anyway, here we go for today. The plan was a 3-mile run and 30 min strength; I ended up running 8.5 and doing 30 min of strength (strength for runners on the Peloton app). 

I've been struggling with keeping my heart rate down since having Covid in January; what feels like an easy pace to my legs has a much higher HR than I'd like. 

Data from my Apple watch:

Run: 8.5 miles
Pace: 9:47
HR: 154
Cadence: 157
Temperature: 51 degrees and overcast

Strength for runners: 30 min after the run